"The Making of "88 Instruments"": This is NOT a tutorial.  It ISN'T monetized.  The pace of it is deliberate, it's not intended to be dramatic.  I don't die at the end, I'm not taken away to jail or a mental institution, I'm not murdered.  I don't try to make myself look sexy.  It's ok if I fart or blow my nose.  For those of you, geeks & nerds & Aspies probably, who can concentrate on something simply because you're interested in it & don't need, or even WANT, to be emotionally manipulated, you might enjoy this as a study of a creative eccentric person using 88 instruments to produce USICAL results in which many conventions of 'correct music' are rejected.  What I accept as instruments range from the obvious: piano, guitars, violins, reeds, etc, to a marching man foley, sound-effects books for toddlers, an 'Aztec Death Whistle', etc.  Some of the instruments were purchased new; most of them were gotten from thrift stores, from Craigslist, from antique stores, from China, from Turkey - any place where I could get them at a price that I could afford.  Some of them were cheap because they're somewhat broken.  I made the Hurdy-Gurdy from a kit, it's not really very playable as an instrument, it's meant more for decorative purposes.  Decades of instrument collecting were involved.  Neil Feather was one of my main collaborators for years & he gave me the Thunder Sheet that he made.  I bought 2 of his other instruments from him: the Melocipede & the Small Nondo.  Some of what I have is rare.  I played 88 instruments, sampled from the recordings of them, & loaded the samples into my sampling keyboard.  I made a 'map' that shows which key activates which sample & I use that as a score.  I've dedicated a large part of my life to creating what I call "Low Classical Usic", I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING.  I'm 68, I wasn't born yesterday.  I deliberately leave in segments where I tell you that I have no idea how to use the new sampler - then I learn.  Within a few days I've learned a fair amount.  The point is to not pretend to be the ultimate expert but to show my going through the learning process.  It's OK if you're trying out something new & fumbling with it a bit.  The result might be a "Diary of a Snail" (to refer to a Gunther Grass book).  The last 13.5 minutes is the 1st take of my playing the samples after they've been correctly loaded in, looped, & volume adjusted.  Sometimes they're reversed.  The 2ND take is a separate movie: "88 Instruments" that I finished & uploaded 1st ( https://youtu.be/zLZi2AVHx6w ; https://archive.org/details/88-instruments ).  I do believe that there're other people out there, other than myself, who can appreciate work like this.  It's far more labor-intensive than it might initially appear to be.  Keep in mind that I built the room that this takes place in, that I painted the walls, that I built the shelves, that I made some of my clothes, etc, etc.  All of this takes an intense dedication.  &, by the way, I DON'T BELIEVE IN THE MAINSTREAM NARRATIVE ABOUT COVID-19, I reject the QUARANTYRANNY, & I'm still alive & well.  Fancy that.  Enjoy.  

- January 4, 2020E.V. notes from tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE  

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